Eclectic crowd treated to Chassidic 'spectacle'

THERE was an odd blend of people at Surry Hills’ Gaelic Club on Monday night. An eclectic mix of kippa-wearing Jews, bogans and the funky underground beanie-wearers who generally frequent the venue.

The sell-out audience were there for Matisyahu, a Chassidic reggae artist, who is currently in the midst of his first whirlwind Australian tour. The performance, which will be followed by shows in Melbourne and Auckland, is hot on the heels of the singer’s acclaimed set at the Splendour in the Grass music festival in Byron Bay on Sunday.

Despite the hype, the Sydney concert had a slow start, with the Australian audience taking a while to adjust to the bearded, 1.9-metre-tall reggae artist singing about “the Lord” with a Jamaican accent and a deadpan expression.
One audience member commented, “If it was anyone else but a Chassidic Jew singing this kind of thing I wouldn’t be that impressed. It seems like a bit of a gimmick.”

But by the time the 27-year-old singer, born Matthew Paul Miller, got to his hit song, King Without a Crown, he had won his audience over. The masses were bopping in time to reggae beats, nodding their heads as if in agreement to Matisyahu’s refrain, “I want Moshiach now” (even if they didn’t know what it meant), while the singer danced like Tevye after too many vodkas.

Some Jewish audience members had heard very little of his music and were at the concert simply for the spectacle, others sang along to his every word, a difficult task due to a combination of the pace at which he sang and the acoustics of the venue.

Some non-Jewish audience members said they had heard his music on Triple J and barely seemed to notice when he threw the occasional Hebrew prayer into his repertoire.

Towards the end of the concert, Matisyahu reached out to the audience, telling them that Jews believe in the importance of prayer, especially in groups.

“If you look at what is happening in the Middle East, they really need our prayers,” he said. The crowd, which included Israeli artist Old Man River, let out a unanimous roar.

“It’s amazing that he puts on a yarmulke and gets out there,” remarked a fan after the show.

“He’s a good ambassador for our people, he shows there is a spectrum within Judaism. He makes a lot of Jews proud to be Jewish,” said another.

Matisyahu was raised in New York in a liberal Jewish family and became a ba’al t’shuva (a Jew who has returned to Orthodoxy) at the age of 22. He released his first album, Shake off the Dust ... Arise in 2004 and his next album, Live at Stubb’s, has sold more than 500,000 copies to date. His latest album, Youth, reached number four on the American Billboard Charts. Matisyahu cites influences as diverse as Bob Marley, Phish and Outkast.

Matisyahu’s Youth is available now through Red Label/Sony BMG.

Jumping Jew flash; Matisyahu's a gas

WHERE would you find a world-famous reggae star just half an hour before their sold-out overseas show?

In shul of course, davvening Maariv and listing to a shiur about the nine days between rosh chodesh Av and Tisha b'Av; a mourning period during which the singer is ironically scheduled to play shows.

Matisyahu, the Chassidic pop sensation, was reportedly spotted at the Yeshivah Centre, before taking the stage before a throng of screaming Melbourne fans at St Kilda’s Prince of Wales on Tuesday night (July 25).

The Orthodox singer is an odd site: 1.9-metres tall, clad in traditional Orthodox garb -- a white shirt tucked neatly under a black suit -- with a black hat tipped, like Michael Jackson, to the side.

He jumps and bounces like an African Masai Warrior with flying tzitzit, and dances across the stage backwards with his arms raised in the air. Meanwhile, the crowd of largely 18 year olds to 50-somethings are barely able to contain themselves.

With their fists in the air, Jews and non-Jews alike join in one voice shouting, "building beit hamikdash", and "we want Moshiach now!".

But it wasn't only religious-tinged topics that the quietly-spoken New Yorker sang about. Matisyahu's music also explores universal themes including pollution and deforestation. He also treated his audience to a five-minute-long beat-box set.

Matisyahu performs with a contagious energy, but when it comes to addressing the crowd, he is soft spoken and reserved. His words, however, still resonate.
"Lets channel our positive thoughts to the Middle East," he said. "Our brothers and sisters are sleeping in bomb shelters tonight."

After just one encore, Matisyahu returned to close the show with a timely version of Psalm 137: "Jerusalem if I forget you, let my right hand forget what it's supposed to do."

Even after Matisyahu left the stage and the house lights were back on, hundreds remained fixed in their spots, wondering whether they will have the opportunity to see a jumping Chassidic reggae star bust rhymes about Judaism again.

We can only hope (and pray)

Reggae, already

LUCY CARNE
16jul06

WITH your eyes shut, Matisyahu makes sense.

Infectious dancehall reggae and a Jamaican accent singing Old Testament themes of Babylon and Zion. Nothing new there.

But then you have the singer. A white, lanky, 196cm tall New Yorker, who also happens to be an ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jew.

Introducing Matisyahu, the world's first Jewish reggae star who is storming up the US charts.

Sporting full Hasidic dress, even on stage, complete with yarmulke, beard, thick glasses and wide hat, the 26-year-old may seem like a bad Ali G joke – more rabbi than rasta.

"I guess to a lot of people a Jewish reggae star seems insane, but to me it doesn't seem insane," the softly-spoken singer says, as he plays with his son in a London park.

"It's just real life, this is my life."

Jewish newspaper Daily Forward named him one of the top five most influential Jews in America, whereas Esquire magazine awarded him Most Lovable Oddball.

He is, perhaps, the first musician to credit rabbis on his CD sleeves. Drugs and working on the Sabbath are outlawed, as is stage diving – as he is forbidden to touch any woman who is not related. He even turned down dinner with Madonna as his beliefs don't permit women to perform.

But despite his eyebrow-raising restrictions, Matisyahu's booming record sales quickly dismiss any hints of gimmick.

His breakthrough album Live At Stubb's, which hit Australia last week, has sold more than half a million copies in America and the UK.

His follow up album Youth went to number four on the US Billboard charts and he sells out concerts across the world.

"It doesn't concern me," Matisyahu says, dismissing the novelty accusations.

"I would say nothing to those people, I would have nothing to say.

"If I feel that I'm doing what's true to me, then it doesn't matter if someone else thinks it's not true.

"If you're just sitting in your lawn chair and having a lemonade and that is what you do, then you won't care if someone walks by and says that's not really lemonade, it's iced tea.

"That's the constant struggle for myself – to do what's real for me, to try and find the real thing for me."

With lyrics including: "Torah food for my brain, let it rain till I drown, Thunder! Let the blessings come down," Matisyahu's spirituality has struck a chord and uncovered a previously untapped and clearly profitable market.

"Maybe it touches upon something human in people, whether that's a spiritual thirst or whatever it is," he says.

"It doesn't matter if it's 100 people in a club or 500,000 people listening to the music on the radio on their way to work. If people are responding to the music, then they've responded."

Born Matthew Miller and raised by a non-observant Jewish family, Matisyahu's first gig was a Grateful Dead concert as a toddler.

He spent his teenage years devouring Bob Marley, OutKast and the Roots.

He rebelled with dreadlocks, beatboxing at the back of the classroom, dabbling in drugs and following jam-band Phish across America.

But his spiritual awakening unfolded when he bumped into a rabbi in Washington Square Park and was introduced to the Lubavitch organisation.

Surprisingly, Matisyahu's love of reggae and skull-cap rap continued to flourish under the constrictions of the strict sect, even as his success grew and he found himself inside the often hedonistic world of rock.

"I just see my music and my religion being a focal part of what I do, and not one really being used for the other," he says.

"Being a musician and being successful is no contradiction to my religion. And it's not so hard touring. Sure, you have to find kosher food and synagogues and try to be focused and on a path. But that's like anywhere. Whether I'm on tour or not, trying to be devoted to anything is tough.

"While I have to be somewhere like a festival, you have to take it in and be aware of what's happening around you, but at the same time as connecting with it be separate from it. It's kinda tricky, but it can be done."

Orthodox beats

Reggae and rap are not normally associated with Judaism, says Andrew Drever.

YOU'D think he'd be used to it by now, but US Hasidic reggae star Matisyahu was taken aback by the reaction in Portugal recently.

Although afforded a near-messianic reception by fans at his shows, a 6' 5" Jewish singer-rapper in traditional Hasidic garb of black suit, white shirt, long beard and black hat - the same uniform he wears on stage each night - is still something of a novelty in Lisbon.

"We had a tremendous turnout at our concert for our first time there," he says, while between concerts in London, "but when I walked down the street, I got two reactions. People either recognised me, because there's no one else in Portugal who looks anything like me, or they think an alien just walked off the spaceship and is walking down the street. They kind of got freaked out. When I'm in Europe, England, Spain or Portugal, it's so in-your-face! You really begin to realise why Jews started cutting their beards and not wearing their yarmulkes. You stand out, and you know what it feels like to be a minority, because you get people looking at you and feeling that you're strange."

Described by Rolling Stone magazine as "the strangest thing to climb the Billboard charts this year", Matisyahu cuts a striking figure, and his unusual look has piqued the curiosity of many music fans.

His breakthrough live album Live at Stubb's has sold 500,000 copies and went top 40 on the album charts in the US, and his latest, Youth, went to number four. His relentless gigging and impassioned, uplifting shows have converted a secular audience to his unique Hasidic reggae sound.

Still dismissed by detractors as a novelty act despite being America's biggest reggae star, Matisyahu is cautious about revealing his theories on his success.

"Some people would say that this is oversimplifying it," he says, "but I think the bottom line is that my music speaks to people. Music touches people, hopefully, and that's why there's a response."

An orthodox Jew doing reggae music is unusual, and reggae purists aren't yet convinced by him, but Matisyahu is unconcerned with appeasing that audience.

"I think that my music is different from the typical reggae sound or even the typical dancehall sound you hear coming up right now," he says. "It's a lot different, and we'll continue to make music that's not reggae music necessarily, because we're constantly listening to different styles of music and we don't feel like we owe it to reggae music to have to stay within the lines of what's considered reggae."

Born into a secular Jewish household in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and raised in White Plains, New York, a camping trip to Colorado and subsequent trip to Israel when he was 16 awakened the then Matthew Miller's dormant Jewish identity.

After he dropped out of school and followed US stoner rock group Phish on a US tour, his worried parents sent him to a wilderness school in Oregon that encouraged artistic pursuits. He attended a weekly open-mic session at a coffee shop, where he rapped, sang and beat-boxed.

He continued honing his skills upon his return to New York in the late '90s, finally converting and adopting the observant name Matisyahu (Hebrew for Matthew).

Now with a wife, Tali and baby son, Laivy, he keeps kosher, prays three times a day and observes the traditional Jewish Sabbath from Friday sunset until Saturday sundown, during which time he can't play gigs. He also cannot come into physical contact with women, which has forced him to do away with his famed stage-diving. Arguably, he is still fighting for credibility, but there is a huge interest in his music.

He comes across as a private, serious and somewhat humourless person, although one senses he has been burned by the press before. He was particularly cagey about discussing messages in his lyrics and is reticent about aligning himself with the Lubavitch stream of Judaism, an association he has freely discussed in the past.

"I don't want to be tied to a movement or be the poster boy for anything," he says. "I don't come with a prescribed plan, like I'm going to convert the world to Judaism or something. But I am going to try and influence every Jew that they should come back to religion!

I just try and make music that's ethical and allows people to find their own answers. I think that's the important thing. People have the answers, and they have to come to it themselves, make decisions and be able to come to a place in themselves, and music is one of those tools that can provide that".
Matisyahu performs at the Prince of Wales, St Kilda, on Tuesday, July 25. Youth is out now on Sony Music.

Matisyahu Revu.nl interview

Matisyahu performed in The Melkweg, Amsterdam. Revu.nl interviewed him beforehand and shot some footage at the show and with the fans.

Bonnaroo

Click on link for Bonnaroo

Matisyahu at the Bat

The Hasidic MC steps up to the plate and rocks some pitches at the Bonnaroo festival's batting cages.

Matisyahu takes his cuts in the MLB batting cages at Bonnaroo.

We couldn't help but publish this amazing shot of Matisyahu, the original Hasidic MC, taking swings in the batting cages at last month's Bonnaroo festival -- check below for a full-size shot. Artists performing at the fest got the chance to compete for prizes in the Major League Baseball-sponsored activity.

While Matisyahu did smack the ball around, three other performers -- Phil Pollard from Band of Humans, Vinnie Amico from moe., and Jeremy Plog from Jackie Greene -- each connected on a perfect 15 of 15 pitches. The tiebreaker? Each winner made a prediction on which MLB team would record the most wins in July. Phil and Vinnie picked the New York Mets (with Phil predicting 19 wins to Vinnie's 17), and Jeremy going with the Los Angeles Dodgers and a prediction of 18 wins.

Talk: Which artist would be the most fun to hang with at the batting cages?

pimpmyweeble

I first saw him in Spin Magazine and now that I've heard him I think I wanna marry him. Unfortunately he probably has or is looking for a nice Jewish girl.

Matisyahu is the 'shizzle' fo sho. I'm digging the verve of his deep lyrics and the music this melody man brings. I'm lov'n it like Ronald Mc Donald, hecks yeh. I musta played King With Out a Crown like a hundred times before finally deciding to add it to my profile. Music I can groove to and worship to, like what!

Matisyahu: An Orthodox Bob Marley

By JESSICA FREIMAN
CJN Intern

Reggae phenomenon Matisyahu wants to make aliyah: “I plan on moving to Israel, probably in the next year or two,” he told The CJN in an exclusive interview.

Some call him a phenomenon; others, a curiosity. Rolling Stone magazine described him as “the strangest thing to climb the Billboard charts this year.”

One thing is certain, however: Chassidic reggae superstar Matisyahu has arrived, and in a big way.

Despite his black suit, velvet kippah and tzitzit flying in every direction as he bopped around the stage at Toronto’s Molson Amphitheatre last month, the audience was dancing right along with him, mouthing lyrics such as “treif wine clouds the heart.”

Those singing along, however, were not Lubavitch – they were in their teens and early 20s, and were not necessarily Jewish.

Matisyahu’s unique blend of Chassidic adages and reggae pop has created such a buzz that his first studio album, Youth, released this year, debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard album chart. Not to mention that it has sold more than one million copies.

But the ba’al tshuvah/beatboxer has no desire to be the poster boy for Orthodox Judaism. “I’m not trying to do anything except be the best singer, performer, person, Jew I can be,” he told The CJN in an exclusive interview. “It’s not about trying to be a role model or trying to be an artist. I am who I am.

“Like everyone, I’m trying to be as good as I can be at what I do. In the process, if that inspires people or makes Jewish kids feel proud to be Jewish, that’s good. But that’s not my sole purpose.”

Although the genre of reggae pop is not the traditional avenue of Orthodox creativity, Matisyahu believes that what he creates is Jewish music.

“Whatever culture Jews are in or whatever area they were in, they adapted the music of that culture, and then they infused it with Jewish ideas and perspectives. I would say what makes music Jewish is the content of the ideas in the music… so I would say my music is Jewish,” he said.

Singing about Galus (exile) in one song, the High Priest in the next, and wanting Mashiach now on his most popular single, King Without a Crown, which enjoys heavy rotation on MTV, Matisyahu is arguably contributing the only example of “Jewish” music to popular culture today. He is definitely the only Orthodox Jew who, in the past few months, has opened for the Dave Matthews Band and shared the stage with Sting.

Seeing other Orthodox Jews make it in the mainstream music world is not necessarily a goal of the 6-foot-4 star. “It is what it is. I wouldn’t like to see Orthodox Jews becoming famous just because they’re Orthodox,” he said.

“It would be good to see people becoming famous that are substantial people and that have something to say, making a kiddush HaShem and making a good name for the Jewish people in general.”

In a world where anti-Jewish sentiments are not uncommon, a positive Jewish public figure like Matisyahu may be countering negative attitudes toward Judaism.

“I think my music is creating a good vibe for a lot of people, all kinds of people who don’t understand Jews or Judaism. I’m just being out there and doing something positive in the world, which Jews really have always done in Judaism,” he said.

Born 27 years ago to secular Jewish parents in White Plains, New York, the artist formerly known as Matthew Miller has travelled a distinctive path since he was taken to a Grateful Dead concert while still in diapers. Growing up, he was sent to Hebrew school and despised it. Later, he dropped out of high school to follow rock band Phish across the United States on their tour and he experimented with LSD.

Next, his parents sent him to a drug treatment centre in Oregon, where he performed reggae and beatboxing locally (beatboxing is the art of creating beats, rhythms and melodies using the mouth), calling himself MC Truth.

Upon his return to New York, a chance encounter with a rabbi and some visits to the Carlebach Synagogue put him on a completely different path to spirituality. He eventually moved in with the campus rabbi at New York University, changed his name to Matisyahu, and the rest is history.

Perhaps it is not surprising that Matisyahu has been compared to reggae icon Bob Marley: both focus on Zion, Jerusalem and redemption in their music. Compare Marley’s lyrics “Iron like a lion in Zion” to Matisyahu’s “Fire descends from on high in the shape of a lion/ Burn the sacrifice of pride and ride on to Mount Zion.”

Matisyahu can see the connection. “I think there’s a tradition in reggae music of artists drawing from the Torah for inspiration and quotations,” he said. “Within reggae music today, there’s a whole genre dedicated to consciousness. Not all music is like that. In the area of rock, there’s no such thing as ‘conscious rock.’ In reggae, there’s a genre: conscious reggae.

“Reggae music is spiritual music. Less is more. It’s humble music, it’s meditative music. Those qualities in themselves are spiritual,” he said.

Particularly spiritual is Matisyahu’s hit Jerusalem in which he sings, “3,000 years with no place to be/ And they want me to give up my milk and honey/ Don’t you see, it’s not about the land or the sea /Not the country but the dwelling of his majesty.”

It looks as though Matisyahu himself will be dwelling in the Zion he sings so much about. “I plan on moving to Israel, probably in the next year or two,” he said. “I would be based there and do travelling and touring.”

The aliyah of this rebbe-rastaman would be a rare example of an international star choosing to make his home in Israel. But to Matisyahu, it makes a lot of sense.

“Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people. It’s obvious to me. I was just there. It’s still the exile, it’s still Galus, and there’s still bad and negative things going on there, but it’s all Jews,” he said.

“It’s kind of like a family, you know? The family might be dysfunctional but at least we’re all together. Whereas when you come out into the world outside of Israel, it’s just dispersed. You don’t get that same sense of a family.”

He smiled as he reminisced about a recent flight to Israel with his wife, Tahli, and baby, Laivy. “My wife just takes my son and just drops him off on some lady’s lap, and three hours later in the flight, the lady brings him back to us. When you get on the plane to go to Israel and everyone on the plane is Jewish, it’s just a different vibe completely.”

Maybe living in Israel will make observant life a bit easier for the singer. “I won’t be doing any concerts during the nine days [before Tisha b’Av, during which traditionally music is not performed to commemorate the destruction of the Temples]. Everyone always needs time off and time to do different things. With me, I just know which days I need off very far in advance,” he said. “You can’t perform every day of the year anyways.”

Sometimes the pressure is on for Matisyahu to broadcast a certain message about Judaism or about life through his music.

“A lot of people tell me what they think, and I choose what I want to write about.

“I just try to represent what I know,” he said.

Matisyahu: Next year in Jerusalem

Matisyahu has no problem singing with Sting about Roxanne the prostitute, and he is even willing to give up hockey for living in the Holy City

Sagi Ben Nun

What do you think an internationally-acclaimed rapper does at the end of a show at a smoky rock club, just after entering the green room, dripping with sweat? Screws around with groupies? Downs some shots? Sniffs up some cocaine? The reality is much geekier as far as Hassidic rapper Matisyahu is concerned.



At the end of his hit performance at the Barbie Club in Tel Aviv, the wildest thing he did was eat a glatt kosher salad out of a plastic box that was prepared in advance.



According to Matisyahu, people want to turn him into a fantasy or a hero, but he's neither a superhero nor a rabbi. He is an ordinary, music-loving genuine person with a wife and kids.



At the peak of his greatest international success he visited Israel again and was the warm-up artist for Sting at Ramat Gan Stadium, where he sang “Roxanne.” Even as someone who keeps the Jewish traditions, he had no problem performing a song written about a prostitute.



According to Matisyahu, the classic song deals with much more than a prostitute: The idea behind the song is that every person can be a prostitute in a certain sense, and certainly the entire Jewish people can act like a prostitute and sell itself short.



In his first album he mentioned the word “Mashiach” in Hebrew (Messiah), and on the second album, which came out on the Sony label, he preferred to use the word “redemption,” which appeals to a wide Christian audience.



Jerusalem, here I come



In an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth Matisyahu mentioned that "It’s true that in the new album there isn’t a lot of Hebrew, unlike the first album. I actually wanted more Hebrew, but Sony was pressuring us to finish the album as fast as possible."



When asked what’s the most surprising thing that people don’t know about him, Matisyahu answered that he enjoys hockey and even used to play. He insists that he will immigrate within a year or two, despite the fact that ice-hockey is almost non-existent in Israel.



"If you hear of a nice house in Jerusalem, let me know," he told the reporter. "My move to Israel depends on a few things: If I make enough money to buy a good place to live in, if my family can come and visit me often and if it will work out as far as my career is concerned.”




1. Yes - there is ice hockey in Israel!
Hey Matisyahu! There's good news for you - ice hockey is alive and well and very existent in Israel.
Bring your gear with you and join the Israel Recreational Hockey Association! There are lots of players in Jerusalem.
Contact me for details.
Paul Shindman , Israel (07.04.06)
pshindman@yahoo.com

2. "The reality is far geekier"
i feel that the guys who are downing shots and snorting cocaine are the geekier ones. This guy is real - he doesn't have to try and impress his peers - you call that geeky?
Martin (07.04.06)

3. matisiyahu-stay in the states
To Matisiyahu,
I think that what you are doing with your music is great. I admire you for using your musical talent in a positive way and earn a living. You are a good influence on young people of all backgrounds. Unfortunately, a lot of the stuff teenagers are listening to now-a-days is very damaging. You are teaching them positive values. They need you there. It's your part of teaching people about the 7 Universal Commandments. I think you can reach a wider audience in America and so you should stay there, at least as long as your career is going well.
aline , kfar saba (07.04.06)